What Do We Know About True Blood Season 3? (SPOILERS)

Season two has barely come to a close and already fans are hungry for details about True Blood‘s third season. Here are some things we already know:

• There WILL be a third season. Filming begins in December with one episode completed early in the month, then a break for the holidays and a return to shooting in January.
• The series is tentatively set to return in June 2010. Yes, that’s 9 months away. No, we don’t think HBO will change their mind. It’s not at all unusual for a cable network to spread their original series out like that. Heck, even the broadcast nets are going that route with series like 24 (airs Jan-May) on Fox, and Chuck (season 2 ended in April 2009; season 3 begins in March 2010) on NBC. This also gives everyone involved in the show – from pre-production to post-production – the luxury of time to create the quality we’ve come to expect from True Blood, instead of having to rush to complete episodes to meet airdates. And for the many fans who have said such a long wait is a death knell for the show, we remind you that the ratings for season 2 more than doubled the highest rated episodes in season 1. If anything, the seven months between the first two seasons allowed more fans to discover the show, making it HBO’s highest-rated series since The Sopranos.
• We will meet Alcide (a were), Debbie Pelt (another were), Franklin Mott (a vampire), and Russell Edgington (the vampire king of Mississippi) in season 3. (source)
• Sookie travels to Jackson, MS, in search of Bill. While that storyline will be set in Jackson, it has not yet been decided if they’ll film on location. (source)
• Maryann will not appear in season 3, but there’s a chance we’ll see Godric in flashbacks with Eric. (source)
• We will meet Sam’s blood relatives and the folks who live in Hotshot (a were community). (source)
• The Fellowship of the Sun still exists and we may see the Rev. Steve Newlin again, albeit angrier than before. (source)
• We will find out what Sookie is and why she was not susceptible to Maryann’s powers. (source)
• The Queen will return and we’ll see a scarier, truly insane side of her. (source)
• We will meet “the nastiest vampire we’ve met yet”. (source)

If you want an idea of where Alan Ball and the writing staff will be drawing their ideas for season three, check out Club Dead, the third novel in the Southern Vampire series.